JF Ptak Science Books

The Big Lie--Poland as an Aggressor Against the Reich, 1939

JF Ptak Science Books  Post  1298      (This is the second post written on this pamphlet--it is a stunner to me every time I see it. The earlier post was written in September 2008 and can be found here.)

Here’s an interesting entry from the instrumental librarians' tool WorldCat, a massive 75 million item book database that I use with some frequency, trying to determine whether some obscure-sounding/looking pamphlet or book is actually Not Around, like not in library collections.  (When something just isn't there, not located, it makes the work even more interesting to me.)

Poland’s Designs on Germany has the sound and feel of a piece of propaganda, right from the start, just from the supra-obvious title page and the very feel of the production.  Looking for my proof-in-the-pudding--the printing information and source for the information--I found none.  Another strike for the propagandist.  (And another interesting point: the phrase "Poland's designs on Germany" is a non-starter on Google, not located on the web, or in JSTOR, or in other pay-for web commercial communities.)

(This item is available for purchase at our blog bookstore.)

Then of course there was the content, which is a simple, serial distribution of The Big Lie, painting Poland as an aggressor, hungry for German land and people. So far as I can tell there is nothing truthful in this work whatsoever, or at least I should say nothing that is assertive to the point of Poland being an "aggressor". There are seven maps illustrating the points.  These are the great hallmarks of The Big Lie--a lie so vast that no one is supposed to think it possible that someone would tell a lie so fantastic, that no broadcast lie could be so incredibly big as to have been invented and told,  and so the lie must be true.  Hitler wrote about this admiringly in Mein Kampf, expressing an idolotry for the idea in print, recognizing it as a powerfull tool of subversion and propaganda, and then went ahead and followed the instructions. 

Then comes the entry in the WorldCat–I found that the year was 1939.  It would be in September of the year that Hitler would attack Poland and the war would begin.  Who would have thought that the Nazis were acting in self defense?

The WorldCat entry:

Poland's Designs on Germany as expressed since the British guarantee.  [Berlin W 62, Rauchstr. 27]  [Dt. Informationsstelle],
1939
23 S. : 7 gez. Kt. ; 8.
Other Titles:     Polnische Ansprüche auf deutsches Reichsgebiet. engl.
Locations    Library    
Germany    BAYERISCHE STAATSBIBLIOTHEK     
Germany    BIBLIOTHEK DES HERDER-INSTITUTS     
Germany    DIE DEUTSCHE NATIONALBIBLIOTHEK   
Germany    STAATSBIBLIOTHEK ZU BERLIN

And there it is: "Dt. Infomrationnsstelle" is the Deutsche Informationnsstelle, the German Information Centre.  The  GIC exists today in name only, but during the National Socialist period leading up to the war and during WWII it was an outlet for German propoagandistic works. There are no copies of this particular work, evidently, in libraries in the United States. This is too bad, because this is a tremendously insulting document, an insistent, insinuating, unforgiving document to the ridiculous, perverted manner of thought and logic of the Nazis.

The Not-Yet Iconic Hamburger, 1956

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

I was looking for something completely different when I stumbled over this simple ad for Worcestershire Sauce. What was instant recognizable to me was that the hamburger was just exactly that--a hamburger.  There was the burger and the buns, and that was it.  except of for the fancy Worcestershire sauce, brought to America from the old country.  In the ultra-centrifuge micro-cautionary ads of today, it would seem impossible to show a food product in such simplicity and so remarkably unposed--the buns are uneven, and imperfect, and there's nothing about the burger to suggest itself as good except for the smiling, suited man. 

McDonalds was selling burgers at this time, and for 15 cents a pop.  I've seen television commercials advertising burgers  for a buck here in the present, cheaper than what the thing was in 1956, that dollar covering only 12 cents of expense then. The current burger is cheaper still if you consider it as part of an hourly minimum wage; the 1956 minimum was 75 cents/hour, while 2010 is about ten times that; that means that the 1956 hamburger was 1/5 of the hourly wage, while the product in 2010 was 1/7 of the minimum wage.  The extreme cheapness of the current hamburger must make it seem a good deal for people working at or below the minimum wage, providing a food-like product to fill the belly for very little money in exchange, and with very little nutritional value. Perhaps that explains why 50 million Americans eat a a hamburger place of some sort every day--it is a vastly successful  business model predicated on delivering an almost entirely valueless version of an essential component of daily life, with constant advertisement duping people with greasy heart clogging goodness delivered by a bouncing clown or a little girl with freckles.  But of course there were worse things--this one just happened to catch my attention this morning.

The hamburger has maintained its cheapness over the years, and certainly is one of those things from the '50's whose back-then price has translated into a more-expensive price with CPI-adjustments over time.  There are other staple-like thingas that were more expensive in 1956 than now: milk/gallon:  92 cents  1956 and $7.44 in 2010 dollars) and coffee,  93 cents (1956) or  $7.52 (2010).  Gasoline was 23 cents/gallon or $1.86 in 2010 dollars. (Gasoline pricing is another, more complicated story, for another time.)

Don't forget to order  your copy of Dishes Men Like! It has seven pages of carving diagrams.

 

Executing Numbers instead of People: Lincoln and the Sioux, 26 December, 1862

JF Ptak Science Books  Post  1298

(Continuing Post 669)

The great mystery was how those Indians were smuggled out of the grave, in spite of the watchfulness of those guards.   From the Autobiography of Theodore Edgar Parker

One of the darkest moments of the spectacular Lincoln presidency came on 26 December 1862 when the president chose to not interfere with the vengeful hanging of 38 Santee Sioux (just south of St. Paul, Minnesota).  This was the legal outcome of a short-fought “war”(known variously  as "The Great Sioux Uprising", "the Dakota War of 1862" and "Little Crow's War")  between U.S. soldiers and several Siouan tribes.  It was a war brought on by the desperate tribes after suffering failed crops and the reneged treaty obligations (including a long-overdue payment of $1.4 million for the purchase of 24 million acres, or about a nickel an acre) of their Great Father in D.C.  It was really more like a hunting expedition—the Indians, who had rampaged and taken hostages and killed over 200 white settlers and farmers, were at the end of their endurance. The warriors were ill-equipped for almost anything, with little food and failing horses, and were positively no match for the federal troops who would hunt them down and destroy them.  The end result was a six-week course of "trials", conducted by a  commission of unsure legality, hearing the cases of 393 people over a span of 42 days, convicting 323, and sentencing 303 to death by hanging. Lincoln commuted most of the 303, but left 38 to be killed.

[This image is available for purchase from our blog bookstore.]

“Destroy” isn’t my choice for words—it is used over and over again in the communications between the field commander General Henry Sibley and the general in charge of the entire region, General John Pope.  It turns out that Pope was of the Tecumseh Sherman school of Indian relations, writing for the record:

"It is my purpose to utterly exterminate the Sioux. They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no means as people with whom treaties or compromise can be made." 

Sibley was a hardened veteran but comparatively understanding towards the Indian, though his communications read much harsher than that.  At least he used the word "destroy" rather than "exterminate", though that was small comfort to those on the receiving end of that vocabulary. (In a letter written in October 1862 to four Sioux chiefs whose tribes might be seen as harboring the breakaway, “warring” tribal elements led by chief Little Crow, Sibley said that he was out to “destroy” Little Crow and that the chiefs  should be as invisible as possible, as the Union soldiers “might not be able to distinguish you from the guilty bands” and could kill them also/instead.)

The war, which began in August ended almost immediately, found the troopers breaking the backs and the wills of the Indians at the Battle of Wood Lake in September 1862.  From that point on, it was Sibley’s job to round up as many of the warring bands as possible and bring them to justice in a military court of law which would not disappoint those with vengeance in their hearts.  The major difficulty seems not to have been the resistance of the Indians but of the problems of supply for the troops.  The prairie grasses then were brittle and dry and brown, forage was extremely limited, and moving 2000 men was a difficulty.  Little Crow and his followers of course had much less, plus they had already been semi-starved up to that point—now that they were on the run, their situation was beyond desperate. 

And they weren’t hard to find.  Sibley’s main concern was to get as many in for trial and judgment and (probable) execution as possible before word leaked out that the guilty were going to be killed and their women and children impounded.  Sibley wrote to Pope on 3 October:

 “It is probable I shall not order any execution of the guilty until I can get those understood to be coming down to surrender themselves in my power, as otherwise they might be deterred from returning."

Deterred, indeed. He continues:

“I shall send the Indians composing the friendly camp to the lower agency, in charge of a detachment of troops, to collect the corn and potatoes in the fields, which have remained hitherto undisturbed. This camp is composed of about 1,200 men, women, and children; mostly the latter, there being but about 250 men among them. How they are ultimately to be disposed of is a question for the determination of the proper authorities. They comprise perhaps nine-tenths of those who have not been actively engaged in the war.”

So Sibley was successful early on his round-up campaign, catching all of those women and children--sounds like of the 1,200 that he overtook, there were about 500-600 kids.  The next day Sibley reported to Pope that the Indians were coming to surrender of their won free will, though they were doing it “slowly”. 

Little Crow's people were “coming in but slowly” and “I  may still be necessary to attack them”.

Attacking for slowness.  In a later letter of 8 October Sibley notes that there is an actual reason for the slow movement:

The messengers dispatched by me to the upper camps returned last evening. They communicated my demand to their small camps, one of which, of 20 lodges, will be here this morning. They say that they dispatched young men to the larger camp, and they state that they were informed that all of the lower Indians were moving down, but slowly, as their horses and oxen are so poor and weak that rapid marches are impossible.

On 6 October Sibley reports to Pope on some other bands of the guilty Indians starting to slip away, writing of “destroying” them as well:

“The bands of Lower Sissetou Sioux, headed by Sleepy Eyes and White Lodge, consist of perhaps 100 or more fighting men, and these have gone with their families toward the Cotean des Prairies; they will probably be found on or near the Big Sioux or James River, where they usually make their fall hunts, and they can only be overtaken and destroyed by a sufficient force of mounted men…”

The next day, 7 October, Sibley seems to continue to play a diminishing role of understanding-the-Indian, telling Pope that the lawbreakers “small mercy”, preferring to wait until all of the Inians were brought in before he started to hang anyone.  Of course thius was all pre-trial conversation.

If I succeed in securing them, as I hope to do, I shall have in my hands three- fourths of those principally concerned in the outbreak, and I promise you they will receive but small mercy at my hands. I have 20 prisoners under sentence of death by hanging. 1 have not yet examined the proceedings of the military commission, but although they may not be exactly in form in all the details I shall probably approve them, and hang the villains as soon as I get hold of the others. It would not do to precipitate matters now, for fear of alarming those who are coming forward to take their chances.

As awful as this sounds, Sibley was a little too liberal and deliberate for General Pope, who wanted to get things settled immediately if not sooner—Pope actually wanted the Indians shipped to him so that he could dispatch the offenders upon arrival.  Sibley to his credit fought this. 

Once the deed of rounding up the Sioux was completed, there was a quick trial, and 303 of the braves were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. 

The text of the orders from the Executive Mansion--and signed by Abraham Lincoln--to General Sibley read as follows:

"Ordered that of the Indians and Half-breeds sentenced to be hanged by the military commission, composed of Colonel Crooks, Lt. Colonel Marshall, Captain Grant, Captain Bailey, and Lieutenant Olin, and lately sitting in Minnesota, you cause to be executed on Friday the nineteenth day of December, instant, the following names, to wit”… [39 names listed by case number of record: cases 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 19, 22, 24, 35, 67, 68, 69, 70, 96, 115, 121, 138, 155, 170, 175, 178, 210, 225, 254, 264, 279, 318, 327, 333, 342, 359, 373, 377, 382, 383]. The other condemned prisoners you will hold subject to further orders, taking care that they neither escape, nor are subjected to any unlawful violence.

The condemned did of course have names but I haven’t been able to find them as yet. 

The detail of the wood engraving that I've shown above may have these men shirtless in the bitter cold.  They were being watched by men in columns, at attention.  Then there were others who were standing on a barrel to get a better view. Others were on horseback.  Outside the obvious monstrosity of the situation, not having your feet on the ground, not standing, not bothering to keep yourself erect as witness to the enormity, was inexcusably bad behavior.  

The sentences of all but 38 were commuted.  On the morning of execution the men were marched in 35 degrees below zero cold twelve miles to the place of execution at Mankato (outside of St. Paul).  The scene is reported by eyewitness  Theodore Potter (recorded in The Autobiography of Theodore Edgar Potter):

"On the morning of December twenty-sixth our company was ordered to march to Mankato and act as guard at the execution. We were in our saddles and on the way before daylight. The distance was only twelve miles, but the thermometer registered thirty- five degrees below zero, and before we reached Mankato many of the men had frozen ears and feet, and all suffered severely from the intense cold."

Potter describes the execution thus:

"At Mankato we met several other companies of our regiment who had been ordered here for the same purpose as we. Hundreds of angry men who had suffered at the hands of these savages were camped within sight of town. They were well armed and officered and were determined that the two hundred and eighty-two Indians who were not to be executed that day by the law, should suffer execution at their hands. Colonel Miller, who was in command of the troops had a force of fully two thousand men, including one battery of artillery, with which to protect his prisoners. The execution took place in the early afternoon. The thirty-nine Indians were ranged on one long platform and executed at the same moment, in sight of a vast multitude of people besides the two thousand troops. At the appointed moment W. W. Dooley, a former member of my militia company and a chief of scouts, whose family had been killed by the Indians at Lake Shetook, stepped forward and cut with an axe the two-inch rope that held the scaffold suspended and the entire number were plunged to death. The prisoners met their end like true soldiers of the plains. Missionaries who had been with them for years were permitted with them during their last days. When the time came for them to go to the gallows the braves asked to have the chains taken from their legs so that they could go in Indian style, single file. This was allowed, and they marched to the scaffold singing their Indian war- song, which was joined in by all the other prisoners. Each Indian placed the rope around his own neck and sang while the death cap was drawn down over his eyes. For five minutes after the scaffold fell everything was as hushed and silent as death itself. Then the crowd began to quietly disperse. The settlers who had formed in companies prepared to make an attack on the barracks, but Colonel Miller had his force well disposed to repel any attack, and the people saw that it would be foolhardy to make an attempt to storm the jail protected as it was by the force of disciplined soldiers. Nearly all the soldiers present were Minnesota men and many of them had had friends killed by the Indians, so that their sympathies were with the settlers and it was well understood among them that if an attack was made on the barracks, and they were ordered to fire on their own friends, they would do so indeed, but would see that none of the attacking party should get hurt. Fortunately the attack was not made and the settlers dispersed."

The hanged men were buried in a mass grave, though they didn't stay buried for very long at all.  Potter concludes:

 The executed Indians were ordered buried on an island in the river near the spot of their execution. All were to lie in one grave and a strong guard was stationed to protect their remains. That night our company returned to St. Peter. On the way several sleighs passed us at different times with only two men in each sleigh. The surgeon of our regiment, a Dr. Weiser, who was riding at my side, remarked that it looked as if those sleighs might have dead Indians in them in spite of the guard at the grave. I jokingly assured him that even if there were dead Indians in those sleighs, there was no danger of his losing his scalp to them. That night after reaching St. Peter and supper at the Nicolet Hotel, the doctor invited me upstairs to the third floor, saying that he had some valuable Indian relics he would like to show me. There on the floor lay three of the Indians that had been buried that afternoon and placed under a guard consisting of a full company of live Minnesota soldiers. The great mystery was how those Indians were smuggled out of the grave, in spite of the watchfulness of those guards. It was soon known to all that their bodies had escaped the grave and were distributed among museums and hospitals in this country and abroad.

Unfortunately, as we all know, these actions were all "normal". The aftermath of all of this in Minnesota was that all of the remaining tribes were expelled and all Indian reservations were abolished.  That pretty much ended the "Indian problem" in Minnesota.

Selling and Costing-Out Digital Computers, 1959--When "Computers Didn't Sell Themselves"

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1296

"Computers do not as yet sell themselves."--Lehman, 1959

Question:  what had 1000 transistors, 5000 diodes, 2000 resistors and 1000 capacitors, a team of ten and took 18 months to build?  

Answer: an inexpensive, $12,000 digital computer in 1959.  

Mind you this is legions better than what was happening in the mid-1940's, with teams of hundreds and costs in the many millions, and much better than in the early 1950's, when these numbers were of an order of magnitude greater.

It seems to me that this short 1959 paper is at the upper end of a beginning concern--costing -out the price of a digital computer for second-tier interests.  "The Specification Development of a Cost-Limited Digital Computer" (by M. Lehman of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and available here for purchase) was written for those businesses and schools with a definite low-end budget, the upper range of which was set by Lehman at $12,000 for "peripherals, hardware and programming  (or about $125,000 in 2010 dollars, sort of¹). This figure was also exclusive of maintenance outside of the cost (at 15-20% of the construction costs overall) of designing and building the machine.

This was some new thinking on providing lower-cost digital computers to a new market:  "in just ten years there has emerged a multimillion dollar industry largely dominated....by the giants of the electronics and data-processing industries...".  Lehman was saying that there was a new opportunity for business to supply computers to "smaller research groups" who were "finding it increasingly difficult to obtain the backing which would enable them...to build an actual machine".  There were other ways of doing it, and Lehman laid out the basic understanding of that procedure.  

Lehman's leading quote for this post was accurate--computers needed to be "sold", as in salesmen and businesses actively engaged in contacting clients who would ("might") benefit from having computeriaed part of their business. The computer manufacturer's "staff will often spend many months investigating customer's problems, possibly reorganizing his techniques and generally preparing teh ground for the installation of a Digital System..."

 

(The figures in the right column are indeed dollars.)

Lehman was doing some groundbreaking work here at the end of the '50's, still far ahead of the time--and probably a full generation--where computers didn't necessarily have to be shown as being 'needed" let alone
"necessary".  The computer would be "selling itself" on the low-end of the market soon enough, but really not until the Reagan years when it was beyond question that the computer could be used by virtually any person or business--at affordable rates.  

Notes

1.  Sort of, indeed.  Straight CPI translation would put this figure at about $125,000, but the other cost of things in 1959 compared to 2010 is a different structure.  Sure, it might cost out to 125k, but that $12k in  1959 could've been traded for a decent working-class house in a big city; you couldn't trade that $125k for the same thing today, no way, no how.  

The Rare Antique Vision of Looking Straight Down

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1295

The idea of representing a view straight down, of looking straight down from some height, is a relatively recent occurrence, this view being somewhat rare in the antiquarian world pre-balloon or pre-heavier-than-air flight.  The pre-human-flight reason for its scarcity is understandable, but even after the first Montgolfier ascension in 1787, there’s another 120+ years of scarcity yet to come before these views would start to pop up in common (and uncommon) literature..  Now I’m not talking about cartography, which is basically a straight-down view of the world—what I’m referring to is that same view but not as a map per se, but what you would see if you were dangling out of a plane or balloon.  The extraordinary map of Imola by Leonardo would certainly classify because of its you-are-there qualities:  essentially it would be like a bird’-eye or oblique view, but straight down.

All of the images are available to purchase from our blog bookstore, here. 

The first image is that made from a balloon, a lighter than air affair, and engraved and printed around 1810 or so.  It has a very uncommon vertigo-ey affect, like a map of Dante's leveled creations, though what we're seeing is a very 

 

...which is a detail from this engraving, made in London around 1810. 

There are of course a number of other lovely design elements, not the least of which is the man in the parachute, bottom left.  (My guess is that the flag held by the man was not for patriotic reasons but rather for more practical concerns, light judging wind strength and duration.   

Another interesting image is this instructional from a source printed around 1620 (I don't know the source here, either--I purchased the print loose many years ago like many of the others here at Pageant Bookshop in NYC).  It shows a slightly oblique angle (below) and then the flat-perspective view at top: 

And then the lovely detail:

Then there's this beauty, showing an idealized town square, presented in mosaic as though seen from above, continuing this thread of flat-perspective--basically looking at some central part straight down, and then taking the objects surrounding the central figure and simply laying them on their backs, as so):

Lastly for now is this quite flat persepective of the remains of the Hastings Castle (East Sussex), which was built right after 1066 but before the battle.  The (limestone) cliffs that did so much damage to the castle are clearly visible, though what was left of the castle is not.  The view of the area of the castle shows the grounds both in perspective and plan and also from directly above. Its a more-naive approach to imaging that was done so well (on occasion) by the U.S. Coast Survey when it rendered a coastline with an inset of what the coastline looked like from the water--both were superior efforts, but a little odd if you took the map at face value.  This map makes no pretense on perspective correctness, though it is overall a fine map, nicely displaying the necessary details accureately though not correctly (?)

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising--Full Text of a Rare 1944 Pamphlet

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1294

"There will be a dawn."--Dorothy Thompson, 1943

"The former Jewish quarter in Warsaw is no longer in existence”--Jurgen Stroop, liquidator of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Dorothy Thompson got that one wrong--or so at least got the "dawn" wrong when it comes to the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.  There wouldn't be a dawn, there, mainly because there would be hardly any Jews, or Warsaw.  [This battle took place about three years after the Nazis established it as a means of control for the city’s 400,000 or so Jews. In the intermediary years hundreds of thousands of Jews had been “deported” (that is, sent to the concentration camps to be exterminated or worked to death), so that by the time of the Uprising only 60,000 people remained in the Ghetto.  And by this time there was no doubt in anyone’s mind who lived there (and perhaps too in Warsaw as a whole) what the euphemism of “deportation” actually meant.  The battle started off well for the home defence (the ZOB) but, ultimately, with little access to resource and with nowhere to actually retreat or regroup in the few acres that remained of the original Ghetto, whoever was left in the Ghetto were either killed or captured by 16 May.  The German commander, SS Brigadefuhrer Jurgen Stroop reported on that day that “the former Jewish quarter in Warsaw is no longer in existence”.]

This small pamphlet was written by Reca stone in 1944 on the Jewish counter-attack against the Nazis in the ghetto of Warsaw. It is one of not-many that documented not only the resistance in Warsaw, but also of the wholesale liquidation going on in that city and in the concentration camps. in general.  (Again, this was written in 1944. )

There weren't many accounts like this, but there were enough, certainly enough to have made a difference, I think, in how the leaders of the war effort approached whether concentration camps existed or not.  Franklin Roosevelt had exactly one meeting on this topic (which I wrote about here), while many others decided that the idea of exterminating all of European Jewry was so enormously bad and so gigantic that it could not possibly be true.  

Felix Frankfurter famously replied to a first-hand report on the extermination from the great Jan Karski that he just couldn't "beieve" Karski's story--not because the Supreme Court Justice (and Jew)  thought Karski wasn't telling the truth, just that the story itself was unbelievable.  And whether people thought that the stories were the truth but unbelievable (like Frankfurter) , or whether they thought they to be exaggerations, or whether they thought it was impossible, the responses and the subsequent actions mostly seem to have come to the same end of nothingness. Even after years of reports of extermination and brutalities and millions of people missing (as FDR was warned of in that 1942 meeting), the actual eyewitness accounts of the concentration camps were still received as being unbelievable.

This is one of the reasons why General Eisenhower--when viewing the  concentration camp at Ohrduf in April 1945 with Generals Patton and Bradley--suggested that world leaders and other high-rankers come to the camps to bear witness so that future generations would know that such a thing actually existed.  And so we come to the Reca Stone pamphlet.  There are many other accounts of course of the uprising, and many of those are available on-line--but the Stone account, which is a rare thing in itself (only seven libraries worldwide having a copy of the work) is not on-line, but it is now.  I think that it is a significant report, and it should have a wide audience--things like this should reach as large a readership as is possible. 

An example of Stone's reporting, coming from Underground sources and the Polish Jewish Reporter, on the number of Jews "removed" from the Ghetto of Warsaw between July 22 1942 and September 21, 1942--254,954 over a period of about three months:

But Stone gives no sentiment to the idea of Jews "perishing".  On page 20 she describes the death camp Treblinka, and how thousands and thousands of Jews met their death in the gas chambers, or by suffocation and scalding, or by execution, or by live burial.  

She writes boldly: In this manner 250,000 Jews were transported from the Warsaw Ghetto...and in this manner tjhey met their death".  Period.  No euphemism here.

She also quotes Washington sources that "two million" Jews had "perished" (the Federal term, not Stone's), and that "five millions were imminently threatened with death".  She pretty much got everything correct, as unbelievable as it sounded, then.  Or now.  

 

The original pamphlet is available for purchase here.

The full test, below--all of the images are expandable:

Electronic, Santa and Reagan Cancers--Selling Cigarettes at Christmas & the Cigarette Highway

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1293

Mmmmm...Can't you just taste the goodness, the frivolity, the downright holiness of these seasonal ads?  What an odd set of emotions these images are able to surface on quick-boil.  Who knew (in this first image) that this LIFE magazine ad from 1954 would reveal the true value of electronics--managing cancer sticks?  (These same folks are today working on quantum computing multi-universe porn--stay tuned.)  The model still has pearly-white teeth while smoking and drinking coffee, radiant in her  half-a-halo of cigarettes. The lit cigarette between her fingers is at first almost invisible (or at least it was to me), seeming to be just another of those rolling off the AccRay Electro-conveyor belt, an endless supply for her pleasure. (The "electronic" part of this ad are also Lilliputian; its a nonsensical drawing with no scale, unless the cig company wanted to get across to its potential smoking community how "big" their cigarettes are.)

.

And could poor old Santa get any lower than this?  Out of all the things he has carried in his sack over the years, Chesterfield Cigarettes may very well be the worst of them.  Plus, not only is Santa delivery them as presents, he'€™s decorating the tree with them as well, and hardly acting the camera-shy sort that he is.  Chesterfield (Leggett & Morris Tobacco Co.) combined some of the best loved elements of childhood (the ABC's "€œAlways Buy Chesterfield") and Santa Claus to not only convince adults to think of the product as a Gift(ing) Unit, but also to lull children into a sleepy, memory-clouding  impression of Chesterfields being somehow good (what with these two primary associations and all).  "€œChesterfields have all the benefit of Smoking Pleasure (capitalized in the original) "they're givable, acceptable and enjoyable¦"  I wonder what they, meant, exactly, by using the word "€œacceptable"? 

I'€™ve seen Santa in other embarrassing poses like this in the pages of LIFE magazine for this period:  €”flying through the air in his sleigh loaded down with boxes of cigarettes, placing boxes of them under the tree, stuffing stockings with cartons, and the like.  I'€™m sure that he regrets it now, though.

All sorts of people were pressed into the service of selling tobacco products like this—sports figures, movie stars, doctors, adventurers; an entire alphabet of personalities and personality types got into the act.  A sitting president had never been involved, though a person who would become president was.
I’m sure Ronald Reagan regretted this ad at some point in his life as well ("beautiful Christmas Car Carton" or not), though I suspect that he would’ve kept that close to the vest. 

This is a simple ad for a butane-based lighter (appearing in LIFE magazine for 18 December 1950), lighting the way down Cigarette Road.  Actually, it was more a highway than a road, and a superhighway at that. Government-sponsored warnings about tobacco health issues was still more than a decade away:  medical doctors were part of the advertising machine, as were actors (including RWR), sports figures, and virtually anyone else with a mouth.

This is a simple ad for a butane-based lighter (appearing in LIFE magazine for 18 December 1950), lighting the way down Cigarette Road.  Actually, it was more a highway than a road, and a superhighway at that. Government-sponsored warnings about tobacco health issues was still more than a decade away. 

It seems to me that there are about 300 cigarettes in this ad, and that looks like a lot—point of fact though is that in 1950, the average American (of 18+ years) smoked about 3,522 cigarettes a year, which means about 10 cigarettes a day for everyone in the country.  Not 10 per smoker; 10 for everyone in the entire country, smoker or not, who was over 18 years of age.

The average smoker in 1950 smoked about 2.5 packs a day, or 50 cigarettes or so—that’s equal to this line of cigarettes being smoked every six days. 
There were virtually no brakes.

 

Even Santa (a pipe smoker) got into the business. This was a standard, acceptable, vanilla-packaged advertisement.

 United States Cigarette Consumption, , 1900–2007

First number is total consumption in billions; second number is per capita yearly consumption for people 18+.

 

1915   17.9   285

1920   44.6   665

1925  79.8  1,085

1930 119.3 1,485

1935 134.4 1,564

1940 181.9 1,976

1945 340.6 3,449

1950 369.8 3,522

1955 396.4 3,597

1960 484.4 4,171

1965 528.8 4,259

1970 536.5 3,985

1975 607.2 4,123

1980 631.5 3,851

1985 594.0 3,461

1990 525.0 2,827

1995 487.0 2,515

2000 430.0 2,092

2005 376.0 1,716

2007 360.0 

Source: Tobacco Outlook Report, Economic Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 699  Blog Bookstore

 

 

 

 

Jackson Pollock's Fractals

JF Ptak Science Books    Rapid Post

Thinking about the “evolution” of music, I came to the 1940's and 1950's , and then to Jackson Pollock, and then to thinking about how his artwork evolved, and then, about how it might have truly evolved in a classic sense, like an evolutionary period.  None of this made much sense to me until I started thinking about the representation of Pollock fractally–and then things started to get interesting.  Could this work come about, again, as a result of the evolution of fractals?

Obviously the Pollock drips aren’t self-same, not easily observably, anyway–but what about statistically, especially under magnification?  

It turns out that someone has taken a look at this: Richard P. Taylor, et al, in “The Construction of Jackson Pollock’s Fractal Drip Paintings”¹This team concludes that–after analyzing paintings and films of Pollock painting them–“the painting process that...Pollock used a remarkably systematic method capable of generating intricate patterns that exhibit fractal scaling criteria”.  

I've never been comfortable with mid-century modern, but I must say that this Ollock/fractal business is interesting to think about, though I'm not sure it has anything to do with art. 

Notes:
1. Found in: Johnson, Colin G. Romero Cardalda, Juan Jesus.  “Introduction: Genetic Algorithms in Visual Art and Music–a Supplement”,  Leonardo, Volume 35, Number 2, April 2002, pp. 175-184 (Article)

Here’s another interesting book: The Art of Artificial Evolution: A Handbook on Evolutionary Art and Music by Juan Romero and Penousal Machado (Editors)bSpringer - Natural Computing Series Hardcover: 458 pag

The introduction to the Johnson ‘02 Leonardo article: “Leonardo has a long tradition of publishing work at the mutual frontier of art and science. We are pleased to present in the pages of Leonardo a special project that

History of Children, 1/7--the First Illustrated Rendering of the World for Kids: Occupations

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1285

This is the first of seven installments on introducing 17th and 18th century children to wide ideas.  The text and images all come from the 1726 English translation of John Comenius' Orbita Pictus, and cover the following territory: Part 1, Occupations; Part 2, Anatomy; Part 3, Books and Book Arts; Part 4, the Sciences; Part 5, Morals and Philosophy; Part 6, Games and the Arts; and Part 7, the Military.  

"O Babees yonge, my Book only is made for youre lernynge” says what well may be the first book made in the West for children, written in the 14th century.  It was made for the eyes of noble blood, of course, and was basically a contribution towards how the children should act and behave, rather than teaching them anything outside of their immediate interactions with each other or their parents.  Books of manner and behavior was the dominant—if perhaps the only(?)—category of books for children until the late 16th century.

John Locke, in his Thoughts on Education (1691), suggests that "when a child begins to read, some easy, pleasant book, like Aesop's Fables or Reynard the Fox, with pictures if possible, should be put into his hands". He adds, "What other books there are in English of the kind above-mentioned, fit to engage the liking of children, and tempt them to read, I do not know, but am apt to think, that children, being generally delivered over to the method of schools, where the fear of the rod is to enforce, and not any pleasure of the employment to invite them to learn, this sort of useful books, amongst the number of silly ones that are of all sorts, yet have had the fate to be neglected; and nothing that I know has been considered of this kind out of the ordinary road of the hornbook, primer, Psalter, Testament, and Bible." (This quote from C.M. Watkins article in The Atlantic Monthly, 1880.)

Perhaps the most beautiful of early books for children is found behind this deeply designed title page, brought to us by Christoph Weigel (German, 1654-1726), the author, illustrator and engraver of Die Welt in einer Nuss oder die Historien vom Aufgang der Welt…¹ published in Nurnberg in 1726.  The book was a tall, thin production, with 16 pages of text and 43 engraved plates, much like this one, emblazoned with emblematic studies and dedicated to a particular point in the historical continuum.  And it was intended, believe it or not, for children—the title can be basically translated as “The World in a Nutshell” and was absolutely intended for kids, compressing all of the human story into 16 terse pages and a whole bunch of gorgeous illustration. This image shows the second millennium after the birth of Christ, illustrated with seven engravings (secula septem).

 

 But the first of all of the encyucloepdia-like books fasiohioned for children--and the first with illustratiions--belongs to the very well studied 13. The fteeple-crowned, 15. add te thefe The bald-pated, 14.

The Plow-man, i. yoketh Oxen, 3. to a Plough, 2. and holding the Flow-Rïlt, 4. in his left hand, and the Plow-ftaff, 5. in his right hand, ivith 'which he remcveth Clods, 6. he еutteth the Land {ivhich ivas manured afore ,uiifh Dung, 8.) with a Share, 7. and a Coulter, and makethFurrows, 9. Then he foweth the Seed, 10. and harroweth it in with a Harrow, 11. The Reaper, I2. jheareth the ripe Corn with a Sickle, 13. gatheteth up the handfuls, 14, und bindcth the Sheaves, 45.<t¿í Threiher, 16.; threfieth Corn en the Barn-floor, 17. ,with a Flail, 18. .*. toffeth it in a winnowing bafket, 19.andfo ivhen the Chaff', and the Straw, 20. are ßparatedfrom it, heputteth it into Sacks, 21 ,The Mower, 22. maketh Hay /я я Meadow, tutting do'wn Grafs with a Scythe, 23. and raketh it together üvith a Rake, 24. andmaketh up Cocks, 26. nvith a fork, 25. and carrieth it on Carriages, 27. into the Hay-barn, 28.

 

Vhe Bees find ota ¿r/warm, i. andfiet over it «Leader, 2. That Jkxiarm heing ready to fly away, is recalled hy the Tinkling ef a braaen Vefl.el, 3. and is put up into a neiv Hive, 4. They make little Cells nvith ßx comers, 5. and Jill them with Honey-dew, and make Combs, 6.cut of ivhich the Honey runneth, 7.The Partitions heing melted -with ßre, turn into Wax, 8.

Grinding

In a Mill, i. « ft'one, 2. runneth upen a ft one, 3.A Wheel, 4. turning them ahout, end grindeth Corn poured in by a Hopper, 5. endparteth the Bran, 6. falling into the .Tro ugh, 7. from the Mealßipping through aBolter, 8.Such a Mill voasßrft a Hand-mill, 9. then a Horfe-miil, 10.. then a Water-mill, 11. anda Ship-mill, i2. amdatlaßt a Wind-mill, 13.

 

History of Children, 7/7--the First Illustrated Rendering of the World for Kids: the Military

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1291    Continuing the post 1285

"Taking the Scarecrows out of Wisdoms Gardens"

This is Part 7/7 of John Comenius' great work, the first illustrated instructional to children, first written in 1676 and then translated into English in 1726--it is from this translation that all of the images (below) are taken.  This is the second of seven installments on introducing 17th and 18th century children to wide ideas, the other sections including: Part 1, Occupations; Part 2, Anatomy; Part 3, Books and Book Arts; Part 4, the Sciences; Part 5, Morals and Philosophy; Part 6, Games and the Arts; and Part 7, the Military.  

The work itself: John Amos Comenius' Orbis Senfualium Piélus: Omnium Principalium in Mundo Rerun/ &f m Vita АШопит,  translated as Pictura et Nomenclatur, the Visible World, or A Nomenclature, and Pictures of all Chief Things that are int he World, translated into English by Charles Hoof...1726.

The purpose of the book, writes the translator in the introduction of the 1726 12th edition, is:  

To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit a torment to be in the school, but dainty/are., For it is apparent, that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with Pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these fights: And it will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to pafs, that fcare-crows may be taken away out of Wifdom's Gardens..."

Even at this early stage of publishing books for children it was easily recognized that children learn better when eased into their subject with pictures.  This is not so far off the mark with the moderns, and in its own way a precursor to the Dick and Jane and Dr. Seuss books--not so much for subject matter, but for the very act of putting a book into the hands of a child and getting them comfortable wit the idea of reading.  It seems to me that this is by far the most important lesson-the actual content at tis point is secondary to the act of holding a book.  

 

 

When aDeíign is undertaken, the Camp, i. is pitched, and the Tents if Canvas, гor Straw, Jarefaßened •with Stakes; and they entrench them aient, fer ßcurity's fake, •with Bulwark?, 4. and Ditches, 5. Sentinels, 6. ere alí'ofel; and Scouts, 7. arefent out.SaUyings-out, 8.ere made for Forage and Plunder-fake,where they often cope with the Enemy, 9. infiirmijhing.. The Pavilion of the Lord General is in the midßoftht Camp, 10.

il to hi fought, the Army is/et in order, and divided into the Front, 1.the Rear, 2.and the Wings, 3.The Foot, 4. mre intermixed •with the Horfe, 5,That is divided into Companies, this into Troops.Thefe carry Banners, 6. tho/e Flags, 7. in the midft of them.Their Officers are, Corporali, Enfigns, Lieutenants, Captains, 8. Commanders of the Horfe,9, Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels, and he that is the chief of all, the General. The Drummers, 10. and the Drumílades, 11. as alfo the Trumpeters, 12. call to Arms, and inßame the Soldier, At theßrß Onfet the Mofitets, 13. and Ordnance, 14. areßot off. After•wards thtyfight, 15. hand to hand •with Pikes and Swords. They that overcome are flain, 16. tr taken Prifoners, ,r run away, 17. They that are for the referve, 18. come upon thtm

A Sea-fight « terrihle, ,when huge Ships, like Caftles, run one upon another ivith their Beaks, 1 , or ßiatter one another with their Ordnance, 2. und/o, heing hored through, they drink in their own Deßnition, and art funk, 3. Or when they arefet on ßre, mid either hy the ßring of G un-powder, 4.

sr hreaking them doivn with Battering-engine!, 3, er demolifiing themwith great Guns, 4.or breaking through the Gates with a Petard, 5. er caßing Granadoes, 6. tut of M01 tar-pieces, 7. tuto the City,hy Engineers, 8. (ivho He hehind Leaguer-ha&ets, 9.) er 0 uerthroivingit avith Mines hy Pioneers, to. They thait are hefieged defend thtmfelves from the Walls, 11. •with ßre and ßones, &C or hreak out hy force, iz. A City that is taken hy Horra is plundered, deßroyed, andfomelimes laid evtl •with the ground.

 

History of Children, 6/7--the First Illustrated Rendering of the World for Kids: Games and the Arts

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1290    Continuing the post 1285

"Taking the Scarecrows out of Wisdoms Gardens"

This is Part 6/7 of John Comenius' great work, the first illustrated instructional to children, first written in 1676 and then translated into English in 1726--it is from this translation that all of the images (below) are taken.  This is the second of seven installments on introducing 17th and 18th century children to wide ideas, the other sections including: Part 1, Occupations; Part 2, Anatomy; Part 3, Books and Book Arts; Part 4, the Sciences; Part 5, Morals and Philosophy; Part 6, Games and the Arts; and Part 7, the Military.  

The work itself: John Amos Comenius' Orbis Senfualium Piélus: Omnium Principalium in Mundo Rerun/ &f m Vita АШопит,  translated as Pictura et Nomenclatur, the Visible World, or A Nomenclature, and Pictures of all Chief Things that are int he World, translated into English by Charles Hoof...1726.

The purpose of the book, writes the translator in the introduction of the 1726 12th edition, is:  

To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit a torment to be in the school, but dainty/are., For it is apparent, that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with Pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these fights: And it will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to pafs, that fcare-crows may be taken away out of Wifdom's Gardens..."

Even at this early stage of publishing books for children it was easily recognized that children learn better when eased into their subject with pictures.  This is not so far off the mark with the moderns, and in its own way a precursor to the Dick and Jane and Dr. Seuss books--not so much for subject matter, but for the very act of putting a book into the hands of a child and getting them comfortable wit the idea of reading.  It seems to me that this is by far the most important lesson-the actual content at tis point is secondary to the act of holding a book.  

In a Play-houie, i. fivhich is trimmed ivith Hangings, 2. andcoveredivith Curtains,3.) Comedies and Tragedies are ailed, ivherein memorable things ere reprejented; as here, the Hißory of the Prodigal Sun, 4. and his Father, 5. hy килnm he is en/ertaiu'd, heing return d home. The Players kß heing in difguife; the Fool, 6. makith Jtßs.

 

 

The History of Children, 5/7--Morals and Philosophy

 JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1289    Continuing the post 1285

"Taking the Scarecrows out of Wisdoms Gardens"

This is Part 5/7 of John Comenius' great work, the first illustrated instructional to children, first written in 1676 and then translated into English in 1726--it is from this translation that all of the images (below) are taken.  This is the second of seven installments on introducing 17th and 18th century children to wide ideas, the other sections including: Part 1, Occupations; Part 2, Anatomy; Part 3, Books and Book Arts; Part 4, the Sciences; Part 5, Morals and Philosophy; Part 6, Games and the Arts; and Part 7, the Military.  

The work itself: John Amos Comenius' Orbis Senfualium Piélus: Omnium Principalium in Mundo Rerun/ &f m Vita АШопит,  translated as Pictura et Nomenclatur, the Visible World, or A Nomenclature, and Pictures of all Chief Things that are int he World, translated into English by Charles Hoof...1726.

The purpose of the book, writes the translator in the introduction of the 1726 12th edition, is:  

To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit a torment to be in the school, but dainty/are., For it is apparent, that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with Pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these fights: And it will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to pafs, that fcare-crows may be taken away out of Wifdom's Gardens..."

Even at this early stage of publishing books for children it was easily recognized that children learn better when eased into their subject with pictures.  This is not so far off the mark with the moderns, and in its own way a precursor to the Dick and Jane and Dr. Seuss books--not so much for subject matter, but for the very act of putting a book into the hands of a child and getting them comfortable wit the idea of reading.  It seems to me that this is by far the most important lesson-the actual content at tis point is secondary to the act of holding a book.  

This Life is a way, or a place divided into two ways, iike

Pythagoras'/ Letter Y. i road, i. on the left-hand track; narrcw, 2. on the right; that helongs to Vice, 3. this to Virtue, 4. Mind, young Man, J. imitate Hercules; leave the lift hand чыaу, turn from Fice i the Entrance, 6. is fair, hut the End, f. it ugly andßetp down. Go on the right hand, though it he thorny, 8. no 'way is unpaffahleto virtue; follow -whither Vitha Itadeth

 

,

and doeth, fptaketh, Or thinketh nothing in vain.

She looks backwards, j. as into a Looking-glafs, 4. to things pad; and feeth before her, 5. as with a Perfpe&ive-glafs,7. things to come, or theEnd, 6. andfo fie perceiveth ivhat foe hath done, and -what remaineth to he dene.

She propofeth an Honeft, Profitable, and -withal, if it may he done, a Pleafant End to her Ail ions.

Haxing forefeen the End, fie looketh out Means, as a Way, 8. ,which leadeth to the End; hut fach as are certain and eajy, and fewer rather than more, lefl any t^ing Jhould hinder.She ivatchethOpponaahy,g. (ivhich having a buihy Forehead, 10. and heing bald-pated, il, and moreover, having wings, 12. doth quickly ßip aviay,) and catchet h it. .i„ ti jS ht goeth on her ivay ivarily, for fear fie fiould flumhle er go am¡/s

A

 

and fo moderateth all thing!,leß any thing too much ее done. ftevellersare made drunk, 4.they flumhle, 5.they fpue, 6.and hrahhle, 7.From Drunken nefs froceedeth Lafciviouinefs; from this, a lewd Life amongfl Whoremafters, 8. and Whores, 9.. in killing, touching, emhracing, and dancing, 10.

 

Fortitude, 1. i Fortitude, t/'/ undaunted in Adwrßty, I impavida eft in Adverlis,and a u J hold as a Lion, 2.¿e/ ns/ haughty in Profperity,leaning en her oivn Pillar, 3.c/"Conftancy; and being the fame in all things, ready to undergo both eftates иith an even mind.

She reeeiveth theßrokes e/.Misfortune •with the SHield, 4. of Sufferance: and keepeth off the Paffions, the enemies ofquietnefs, 4vith theSword, 5. a/"Valour,

 

Patience, 1. I Patient la, 1endvrtth Calamities г. !tokrat Cal»mitatts, 2.and Wrongs, 3. meekly like a Lamh, 4. as the fatherly chaftifement of God, 5.

In the mean while fie hattet h upon the Anchor of Hope, 6. {as a Ship, 7. tiffed hy •waves In the Sea) /he prayeth to God, 8. •weeping,and expeBeth the Sun, ГО. after cloudy weather, 9. fuffering evils, and hoping hetter things.

On the contrary, the impatient Perfon, 11. Koaileth, lamtnteth, rageth again ft himfelf, 11. grumhl»th like a Dog, 13. and yet doth no good i at the laß he defpaireth, and hecome!h his own murtherer, 14. Being full of ragt it äeßrtth to revenge wrings.

Men are made for one another's good; therefore let them he kind. Be thou/iveet ana' lovely in thy Countenance, i. gentle and civil in thy Behaviour and Manners, 2.affahle and truc-t'poken ivith thy Mouth, 3. ajfeBionate and candid in thy Heart, 4. So live, and Jo ßialt thou heloved; a r d there ivili he * »i/WFriendihip, {. as that of Turtle-doves, 6. hearty, gentle, andivijhing nuellrn hoth p arts, Frcivard Men are if auf id, t/ly, unplea/ant,

 

 

to he referred J"or the other party; Holding in her right Hand a Sword, ç. und a Bridie, ó. еo punißu und reßrain evil men;Beßdes, a pair of.Balances, 7. in the right fcale, 8. whereof, Deferís,and in the left, ci. Rewards heing put, are made even one vjith another, andfo good Men are in- cited to virtue, as it ivereivith Spurs, 10. In Bargains, 11.let Men deal candidly:let themf tand to their Covenants яWPromifes;let that which is given oneto keep,and that which is lent,he reßored:let no man he pillaged, 12.er hurt, 13.let every one have his очиn:thefe are the precepts efjußice. Such things as thefe are forhidden in God's 5th and7th Commandment,and difervedly puni/h'don the

Liberality, r. keepeth a mean abcut "Riches, •which fie honeßly fecket h, that fie may have fomeivhat to hejfaw c?:thi.i.i that want, 2.

She clothetii, 3., nourimeth, 4. and enricheth, 5. thefe •with a chearful Countenance, 6. and a winged Hand, 7.

She/ubmittethhersvealih,2. to herfelf, not herfelf to it, as the covetous man, 9. doth, •who hath, that he may have, and is not the Owner, hut the Keeper of his goods, and heing unjatiable, ahvays icrapeth together, ib. •with his Natis.

either •with Wealth, er a Trade and Science, ivhich mayjerive for getting a living; »hai he may he ahle to maintain a Family.

Then he chcofeth him/el/ a Maid that is Marriageahle, (or a Widow) •whom he loveth; neverthelrfs a greater Regard is to he had of Virtue,and Honefty, than ^/"Beauty or Portion.

Afterwards, he doth not hetroth her to himfelf clofelj, tut entreatethfor her, as a Woer, firß to the Father, i. and then the Mother, 2. er theGuardians, tr Kinsfolks, byfuch as help to make the match, 3.

When fie is effous'dto him, he hecometh /¿¿Bridegroom,,.).. end fie the Bride, 5. and the Con traft is made, aid an Instrument of Dowry, 6. is •written.

At the laß  the Wedding is made,  inhere they are joined together  ly the Prieft, 7» gi-ving their Hands, 8. one to
another,and Wedding-rings, 9. ihm they.ftaß •with the ivitneffes that are invited. After this they are called  Hulhand tWWife; ivhen fie is dtad\ he hecmeth * Widower.

In Confanguinity there touch a Man, i in Lineal Afcent, the Father {the Father-in-taw) 2. and the Mother (the Mother-in-law) 3-.; the Grand-father, 4.. ana the Grand-mother, 5. the Great Qrand-father, 6. ßW/^eGreatGrandmütliersj.. the great great Grandfather; 8. the great great Grandmother, 9. the great great Grandfather's Father, 1 o.thegreatgreatGrandmotheris Mother, grandfather's Grandfather, i2. thegreatgreatGrandmother's Grandmother, 13.4"hofe heyond thefe are called Anceftors, 14. In a Lineal defcent, the Son (the Son-in-law) 15. and the Daughter (the Daughter-in-law) 16. the Nephew, 17. und the Niece, 18. the Nephewis Son, 19. «»i•//¿eNephewsD aught еrs о. the Nephewis Nephew, 21. and the Nieceis Niece, 22. the Nephewis Nephewis Son, 23.the Niece's Nieceis Daughter, 24. the Nephewis Nephew's  Nephew, 25./w-NïeçeisNieceisNiece, 26. Thife heyond thefe are called Pollerity, 27. . . 27. In a Collateral Line are the Uncle hy the Father's fide, 28. and the Aunt hy the Fatheris fide, 29. the Uncle hy the Motheris fide, 30. endúit Aunt hy the Motheris fide, 31. the Brother, 32. and the Sifter, 33. the BrotherisSon, 34. the Sifteris Son, 35, and the Coufin hy the Brother and Sifter, 36.

CXXII.

The Society betwixt Pa- Societas Parentalis.

rents and Children.

Married Perfoni, (hy the hlcjßng of God J haie Ifiue, and hecome Parents.

The Father, i. hegetteth, and the Mother, 2. heareth Sons, 3. ar.d Daughters, 4. (fometimes Twins.) The Infant, 5. is •wrapped in Svvaddling-clothei, 6. it-laid in a Cradle, 7, is fuckled by the Mother ivithher Brenfts, 8. and fedtuUth Pap, 9.-.iftcrit:rrds it learneth to go by a Standing-flo&l, io.

the Miftrefs, (the good wife of the Houfe) 3 Maidens, 4* They appoint thefe their . Work, 6. end divide them their talks, 5. 'which are faithfully to he done hy them without murmuring У lofs ; for iv h ich their Wages, and Meat and Drinkis allowed them. A Seivant 'was heretofore a Slave, euer ivhom the Maßer had Jioiver of life and death. At this day the poorer fort ferve in a free, manner, heing hired for Wages,

Set vus olim er&tMancipiumy in quem Domino poteftas fuit vit

 

The History of Children, 4/7--the Sciences and Learning /"Infinite Islands float in the Seas"

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1287    Continuing the post 1285

"Taking the Scarecrows out of Wisdoms Gardens"

This is Part 4/7 of John Comenius' great work, the first illustrated instructional to children, first written in 1676 and then translated into English in 1726--it is from this translation that all of the images (below) are taken.  This is the second of seven installments on introducing 17th and 18th century children to wide ideas, the other sections including: Part 1, Occupations; Part 2, Anatomy; Part 3, Books and Book Arts; Part 4, the Sciences; Part 5, Morals and Philosophy; Part 6, Games and the Arts; and Part 7, the Military.  

The work itself: John Amos Comenius' Orbis Senfualium Piélus: Omnium Principalium in Mundo Rerun/ &f m Vita АШопит,  translated as Pictura et Nomenclatur, the Visible World, or A Nomenclature, and Pictures of all Chief Things that are int he World, translated into English by Charles Hoof...1726.

The purpose of the book, writes the translator in the introduction of the 1726 12th edition, is:  

To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit a torment to be in the school, but dainty/are., For it is apparent, that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with Pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these fights: And it will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to pafs, that fcare-crows may be taken away out of Wisdom's Gardens..."

Even at this early stage of publishing books for children it was easily recognized that children learn better when eased into their subject with pictures.  This is not so far off the mark with the moderns, and in its own way a precursor to the Dick and Jane and Dr. Seuss books--not so much for subject matter, but for the very act of putting a book into the hands of a child and getting them comfortable wit the idea of reading.  It seems to me that this is by far the most important lesson-the actual content at tis point is secondary to the act of holding a book.  

 

into the ßadotv oftheEatih,». it is darkened, nvhich ive tall an Eclipfe, or defeil.

But when the Moon runutth hetwixt the Sua and the Earth, 3. it covtilth it -with it 1 Jbaàomi; and this toe call the Eelipfe of the Sun, hecaufc it takethfrom us the ßght of the Sun, and its light;

neither doth the Sun/br all that fuffer any thing, eut the Earth.

is 360 degrees', ("•whereof every one maketh 60 Engliih Miles) or 2 1600 Miles, and yet it is tut a prick, compared •with the World, •whereof it is the Centre. - 4"hey mea/иrе the Longitude «fit hy Climates, 1. and the Latitude hy Parallels, *•

The Ocean, 3. cempajjeth it ahout, and ßve Seas voafi it, the Mediterranean Sea, 4. the Baltick Sea, 5. the Red Sea, 6. the Perfian Sea, 7, end the Calpian Sea, 8.

ей graduu»k CCCLX. (quorum quifque facit LX. Milliaria Anglica) vel 21600 Milliarium, & tamen eft puncbm, collata cum orhe, cujusCentrum eft. - Longitudinem ejus dimetiuntur Climatihus, 1. l-atitudinem, lineis Parallelis, 2.

Occanus, 3. amhit earn Se Maria V. perfundunt, Mtditerraneum, 4. Balticum, 5. Erythraum, t Perßcum, 7. ... _ Caffium, 8.

art uninhahitahle }.

the II. Temperate ones, 10. .10.

end the Torrid one, 11.

hahitable»

Beßdes it is divided into three Continents; thh of ours, 12. 'which isfubdividedinto Europe, 13. Afia, 14. Africa, 15. America, 16. ... 16. fivhofe Inhahitants are Antipodes to us) and the South Land, 17.. .1 7. yet unkno•wn.

They that d•well under the North Pole, 18. have the days and n'gbts 6 months long.

Inßnite Iflands float in tht Seas.

The Afp, 4. in the ßelds. The Boa ^rMild fnake)5.in Houfes. The Slow-worm, 6.

is hlind.

The Li2ard, 7. mid the Salamander, 8^ (that liveth long in ßre) have fee(.

The Dragon, 9. 2 winged Serpent, killeth ivith his Breath,

The Bafiliik, 10. with his Eyes;

And the Scorpion, 11. ,ivith his poi/onous tail.

fhe Earth-worm, i. the Earth.

The Caterpillar, 2. the Plant.

The Grafs-hopper, 3. the Fruit:.

The Mite, 4. the Gern.

The Timher-worm, 5. IVood.

The Moth, 6. a garment.

Tbe Book-worm, 7. я Book.

Maggots, 8. FUß and Cheefe.

Hand-worms, the Hair.

Thefiipping Flea, 9. the Loufe, 10. ostd the ßinking Wall-loufe, (Bug) 11. hite us.

The Tick, 12. it a Bkod-fucker.

The Siik-worm, 131 makethßlk.

The Pifmiie, 14. is painful.

SVSpider, ijy •wearveth a Cob•weh, nets for ßies.

The Snail, 16. tarrietjf about her Snail-horn.

. Lumbricns, 1. Terra m.

TL rue a, 2. Plantara.

Cicada, 3. Fruges.

Curculh, 4. Frumento»

Teredo (coffis) 5. Ligna.

Tinea, 6. vefiem,

Blatta, 7. _

Lihrum.

Tir mites, 8. Camem & Cafeum.

Acari, Capillum,

Saltans Pпlex, 9. Pediculus, 10. foutens Cimex, 11. mordent поз, 'Ricinus, п. fantruifugus eft.

Bombyx, 13. facit fericum.

Formica, 14. eft lahoriofa. ч Aranea, 1J. texit Araneum, retia inufcis. .

Cochlea, \6. Icircumfert Teftarbi

The e¿/e/rKingdoms qf In Europa noftrâ

Europe, are I funt Rtgna primaria, Spain,Spain, i. France, 2. Italy, 3. England, 4. Scotland, 5, Ireland, 6. Germany, 7; Bohemia, 8. Hungary, 9. Croatia, 10. Dacia, 11. Sclavonja, 12. Greece, 13. Thrace, 14. Podolia, 15. Tartary, 16. Lithuania, 17. Poland, 18. The Netherlands, 19. Denmark, 20. Norway, 21. Swedeland, 22. Lapland, 23. Finland, 24. Lifland, ?ç, Pruffia, 26. Mufcovy, 27, W Raffia, 28. .

 

The History of Children, 3/7: Books, Book-Making and Booksellers

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 1287    Continuing the post 1285

"Taking the Scarecrows out of Wisdoms Gardens"

This is Part 3/7 of John Comenius' great work, the first illustrated instructional to children, first written in 1676 and then translated into English in 1726--it is from this translation that all of the images (below) are taken.  This is the second of seven installments on introducing 17th and 18th century children to wide ideas, the other sections including: Part 1, Occupations; Part 2, Anatomy; Part 3, Books and Book Arts; Part 4, the Sciences; Part 5, Morals and Philosophy; Part 6, Games and the Arts; and Part 7, the Military.  

The work itself: John Amos Comenius' Orbis Senfualium Piélus: Omnium Principalium in Mundo Rerun/ &f m Vita АШопит,  translated as Pictura et Nomenclatur, the Visible World, or A Nomenclature, and Pictures of all Chief Things that are int he World, translated into English by Charles Hoof...1726.

The purpose of the book, writes the translator in the introduction of the 1726 12th edition, is:  

To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit a torment to be in the school, but dainty/are., For it is apparent, that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with Pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these fights: And it will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to pafs, that fcare-crows may be taken away out of Wifdom's Gardens..."

Even at this early stage of publishing books for children it was easily recognized that children learn better when eased into their subject with pictures.  This is not so far off the mark with the moderns, and in its own way a precursor to the Dick and Jane and Dr. Seuss books--not so much for subject matter, but for the very act of putting a book into the hands of a child and getting them comfortable wit the idea of reading.  It seems to me that this is by far the most important lesson-the actual content at tis point is secondary to the act of holding a book.  

 

The Ancients nvrit /яTables done over with wax ivith a hrazen Poitrel, i. ivith theJharp end, i. ivhereofletters ivereengraven, and ruhhed out again with the hread end, 3.

Afterwards they writ Letters with a fmall Reed, 4.

We ufe a Goofe-quill, 5. the Stem, 6. of which tue mabe with a Pen-knife, i7. then 'wt dip the Neb in an Ink-horn, 8. which is ßopped wit h aStopple, 9. andiiie put our Pens into /rPennar, 10.

 

makttjfik a Paper-mill, 4. of Linen nigs, 5. fiampedto Malh, 6. 'which heing taken up in Frames, 7. . he fpreadetb into Sheets, 8. andfetteth them in the Air that they may he dried.

1 vsenty -ßve cf thefe make a C¿iure, д. t•wenty Squirts a Ream, 10. and ten of thefe a Bale of Paper, 11.

That iwhich is to laß long is written on Parchment, 12

taketh them out one hy owe,and according to the Copy,(•which he hath faßened hefore him in a Viforum, 2.)compofeth •words in a Compoíing-ftick, 3. tilla Line he made; he putteth thefe in a Gaily, 4. till a Page, 6. he made, and thofe again in a Form, 7. and he locket h them up ., •. in Iron Chafes, 8. •with Quoins, 9. leß they Jhould drop out, and putteth them underthe Prefs, 10. Then the Prefs-man heateth it ever •with Printers Ink, hy means of Balls, 11. fpreadeth upon it the Papers put in the trinket, 12. •which heing put under the Spindle, 14. on the Coffin, 13. and prejfed down -with a Bar, 15. he maieth to taie mprejjton.

 

In times paß they g hued Paper to Paper, and rolled them up together, into one Roll, 1.

At this day the Book-hinder bindeth Rooks, ivhilß he ivipeth, 2. ever Papersßcrpt in Gum-water, and then foldeth them together, 3.

hec.teth ivith a hammer, 4.. J hen ßitcheth them up, ç. prefj'eth them ii a Prefs, 6. .ivhich hath tivo Screws, 7. glueth them on the hack, cutteth off the edges ivith a round Knife, 8. and at laß comer et b them ivith Parchment o/Leather, 9 maketh them handßme, andfetteth on Clefps, 10.

Olim agglutinahant Chartam Chartae,. convolvetiantque eas in unum Volumen, 1.

Hodiè Compaclor compingit Lihros, dum tergit, 2. Chartas niaceratas aqua glut tnef я, deinde complicat, 3. rr.alleav, 4.tum confuit, 5. cemprimitPrtlo, 6. quod hahet duos Cochlea!, ~. conglutinat dorio, demr.rginat rotundo Cuttro, 8. tandem veftit Membrana, vel Corio, д. efTormat, Scafiigit Unchndcs, 10.

A Book

A Book, as to its outtuard Shape, is either in Folio, i. er in Quarto, i, in Oitavo, 3. in Duodecimo, 4. either made to open Side-ways, ç er Long-ways, 6. ivith Bra2en Clafps, 7. or Strings, 8. and Square-boflês, 9.

Within are Leaves, 10. nvithfwo Pages, fometimes divided ivith Columns, 11. and Marginal Notes, 12t.

7 he Study, 1. ii a place -where a Student, 2 apart ftоm Men, fttteth alene, addicted to his Studies, 'whilji he readelh Booki, 3. luhith heing within hit reach be laytth open upon a Deflc, 4 andpickttb all theheß things out of them into hit ozvii Manual, 5.  cr market h them in than  with a Daih, 6. cr a little Star, 7. m the Margin.

 

What Color "Is"--an Unintentional Modernist Masterpiece of Book Illustration?

JF Ptak Science Books Post 1282   [With 20 extra images in Continued Reading section]

[Earlier in this blog, about 1200 posts ago, a million words ago, I wrote about an extraordinary book by an aesthetician named Emily Vanderpoel.  It is "extraordinary" in a narrower sense, and that "extraordinary" might not actually be positive for its original intent.  The extra-intent of the book, what has come out of it for me, was something that was unintentionally accomplished by the author.  The images that she used to illustrate her color theory ideas--the basis of which are not really comprehensible to me--turn out to be artwork in themselves, a found art, the artistry of the images taking over the original intention for the arrangement of their color.  And so I've returned to the post, to add a bit to the test, and to also add 20 of the original images of this incredible work for sale at our blog bookstore..]

The idea of how we put parameters to something like the visual field is a gargantuan topic—it is something that architects and geometers and physicists and mathematicians (in general) have dealt with forever.

  Mapmakers have perhaps the most visualized aspect of this on paper, performing the semi-miracle of translating three dimensions into two; physicists have a more difficult time, taking the opposite approach, sort of , and translating two or three dimensional space into x-number of dimensions.  Anatomists had a difficult time of their subject until relatively recently in human history, what with the sublime religious curfews on messy knowledge and all coming into play, poking around into the heart and such as though it was an affront to the sanctity of the creator (M Servetus’ ideas on the circulation of the blood via the heart, making the heart a tool and not the brain or some odd conjunction of creative divine power, cost him his life, burning slowly alive at the stake…how mysterious the whole world of RNA Genotype-Phenotype Mapping and such would seem to him if he could have a peek into the future/present from wherever he is.)

Color theory is old and pretty—as a matter of fact there is a very attractive gathering of color theory models (in black and white, though) displaying some two dozen or more color models from the last 400 years.  People like Della Porta (1593), our old friend and resident oddball polymath crank Kircher (1646), the smarter-than-you-could-believe Newton (1660), Waller (1686), Lambert (1772), the wide ranging and again polymathic Goethe (1792), Herschel (1817, who also ushered in our understanding of the other light-sensitive shape spacing medium of photography in 1840), the semi-forgotten Chevreul (1835), the beautiful Maxwell (1857), Wundt (1874, the early experimental psychologist who also looked for spirits/spiritmus and ghosts), von Bezold (1878), Rood (1879), Munsell (1918) Kandinsky (1914 and not decipherable by me) and Klee (1924), and so on towards the present, all tried to analyze the prospects of color.

Not in this list is the very highly problematic Emily Vanderpoel, who in 1901 and 1903 produced (in two editions) a lovely but mysterious book called Color Problems for the Layman, in which she sought not so much to analyze the components of color itself, but rather to quantify the overall interpretative effect of color on the imagination.  I know this sounds begging and vague, but I really haven’t been able to make much headway in the work.



I’m attracted to this effort because of its attempt at quantifying such abstract thoughts.

By virtue of this effort, though, Vanderpoel had produced a strikingly illustrated book, with 118 color plates, all very intense, and beautiful, and in its way exceptional—unique for it time perhaps.  Had the book been written thirty years or so hence we’d call it some sort of constructivist/constructionist artform.  But since the artwork in the book comes a decade before the first non-representational artwork in human history (or so), I don’t know exactly what to call it. 


I really don’t know what it is, but I know that it is not entirely accidental, this pre-non-representational artform, because controlled geometrical color art is not accidental. 

In trying to quantify the color images of the objects in her study, Vanderpoel establishes a 10x10 square grid, dividing all of the color in that object into individual units numbering to 100.  Then, somehow, she identifies the major colors and places them according to a system that I cannot understand within the grid.

The net effect is glorious.  I just don’t know how she got there—which isn’t normally a consideration in art, except that this work is an instructional on how to understand color in art and nature, and the explanation of the procedure is ethereal.  Vanderpoel was and remains a respected author on porcelains and other applied and plastic arts.  In this work she looked at her fair share of porcelain, limogues, clay pots, burial urns, glass shards, and the like; she also analyzed clouds, mummy cloths (and casings), dew on morning grass, brocade, the eye of a blue jay, feathers, and another hundred or so poetic arragenments of the stuff of teh world.  I still do not know what this book is trying to tell me, but I do know that it is remarkable.